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The NASCAR "All-Star Race" has been an annual, non-points paying event on the schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series since its inception in 1985. However, in recent years the exhibition event has lost it’s glamor, as a "go have fun" race for the teams. Whether it be the facility, the race format and qualification, or even the officiating of the race, something about the event appears to not be clicking with the stock car racing fan base.
There have only been 26 different drivers to win the event over the past 37 years, and the race has been held at four different tracks: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. Obviously different racing surfaces and facilities will have a direct effect on the race itself, causing various results.
It may be good to start with a little bit of the race name history, which has had about the same wording and big meaning since the start.
From its beginning in 1985 until 2003, the "All-Star Race" was known as "The Winston", as the then NASCAR Cup Series title sponsor was Winston Cigarettes, owned at the time by R.J. Reynolds. When the U.S. Government issued major restrictions on tobacco companies, Reynolds' ended Winston's relationship with NASCAR for good. The “NASCAR Winston Cup Series” would become the “NASCAR Nextel Cup Series” in 2004. Due to this change, the name of the All-Star Race would also change. Variations like the "Nextel All-Star Challenge", the "Sprint All-Star Race", or later the lengthy "Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race" were used throughout the 2000’s and 2010’s.
When NASCAR changed to the tiered series sponsorship model for 2020, with the four Premier Partners, the event name would settle on what it is called today: the NASCAR "All-Star Race". The name seems to still carry the legacy of the race from its debut, but the glamor is getting dull with recent changes NASCAR has done to the event.
The "All-Star Race" lineup is usually a downsized field from the regular NASCAR Cup Series lineup, filtering out drivers who did not win in the previous season. These drivers usually compete in a qualifying race before the main event. In recent years, winning a segment in what is called the "All-Star Open Race", locks a driver into a seat in the main event, later that evening.
The race format, at least in the past few years, is very hard to comprehend for most fans of the sport. As it changes from year-to-year. It’s difficult to justify learning the formatting and rules for the “All-Star Race” when it’s a given that it will change for the following year. Re-learning the format each and every year, just to see it change can grow frustrating. Some stock car racing fans have even taking a “hands off”approach, ignoring the confusing format and simply enjoying the racing.
Something else that has plagued NASCAR’s “All-Star Race” in recent years is an identity crisis. With an ever changing format, the least that NASCAR could do was keep the race location the same. Until 2020, the “All-Star Race” took place at Charlotte Motor Speedway, right in the heart of ‘NASCAR Country’. In 2020, NASCAR decided to relocate the all star race to Bristol Motor Speedway. In this race teams would be forced slide their numbers backwards toward the rear wheel-well, and even run a street racing under glow. To say the least, this race was mediocre at best. With $1,000,000 on the line more action would have been expected.
The next year in 2021, and the following year in 2022 the “All-Star Race” was held at Texas Motor Speedway. As Texas Motor Speedway lost a points paying race, in what seemed like a contract agreement, they kept their name on the schedule twice. Texas Motor Speedway has often been criticized for the racing produced there, where the field is often very stretched out and close racing is a rarity. Although some of this criticism is blown out of proportion, the lacking entertainment hardly made Texas Motor Speedway a quality candidate to host the NASCAR “All-Star Race”.
If anything is going to bring prominence backs to the NASCAR “All-Star Race”, the current Texas Motor Speedway is not the answer. What can be done to save one of NASCAR’s most notable events?
To begin with, if NASCAR wants to have an action packed race, they ought to return to Charlotte Motor Speedway, or any race track that is known for close racing. In their format and rule making, NASCAR has taken responsibility and acknowledged the lack of action at Texas Motor Speedway. In the past two years, NASCAR has employed tools like competition cautions, extra stage breaks, inverses restarts all in an effort to bunch the field back up, and make up for lost action. A simple way to create action packed racing is to bring the exhibition race to a track worthy of such competition. Plain and simple to me.
What else can NASCAR do to draw new attention to the “All-Star Race”? If NASCAR can manage to bring this exhibition race to a venue that naturally hosts competitive, action filled racing, then they should be able to do away with the confusing and often out of the normal rules. Many of these rules were put into place to keep the field tight, and make the racing competitive. It hasn’t exactly worked at Texas Motor Speedway, and if anything it confused even the most devoted of fans. If NASCAR can bring the “All-Star Race” elsewhere, these over complicated rules can be eliminated, action packed racing can prevail, and hopefully fan interest would be better maintained.
The reasons NASCAR moved the "All-Star Race" are clear. Fan interest for the event at Charlotte Motor Speedway was dwindling, Texas Motor Speedway was struggling (NASCAR didn't need the track having two points paying races), and Bristol Motor Speedway was simply a stepping stone. Solutions for these issues were justified, but it came at the expense of the "All-Star Race". All in all, if NASCAR doesn't make some strategized and significant changes to the "All-Star Race" soon, it may eventually disappear for good.
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